Tag: Space

NASA/JPL-Caltech The Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), located on the robotic arm of NASA’s InSight lander, took this picture of the Martian surface on Nov. 26, 2018, the same day the spacecraft touched down on the Red Planet. The camera’s transparent dust cover is still on in this image, to prevent particulates kicked up during landing from settling on the camera’s lens. This image was relayed from InSight to Earth via NASA’s Odyssey spacecraft, currently orbiting Mars. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a…

This year seems to be quite an active time for all the people who have their eyes set on the “final frontier”. With Tesla being launched into space, and Kepler’s fuel running out, it was just the time for another big event on the horizon. Launched on the 5th of May, InSight robotic lander has reached the surface of Mars yesterday, November 26, marking another tremendous step in human, as well as space exploration, history. Upon entering Mars’ atmosphere, InSight had reached the speed of 12,300 miles per hour (5.5…

“Orbit” is a real-time reconstruction of time-lapse photography taken on board the International Space Station by NASA’s Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit. The structure of the film is built around the world of Phaeleh’s last three albums: Lost Time, Illusion of the Tale, and Somnus. According to the creator, SeÃ¡n Doran, the tone and pacing of each track influenced the choice of material used. Typically each time-lapse sequence was photographed at 1 frame per second. Each sequence was processed in Photoshop. A dirtmap was made in order to repair…

NASA’s returning to the Moon to stay, and preparing to go beyond. With a voiceover by Mike Rowe, NASA looks back on 60 amazing years and wants to get you inspired for what’s to come. Read more: https://twistedsifter.com/videos/nasa-hype-video-new-moon-mission/

Saturday Night Live’s Captain Ed McGovern (Steve Carell) thought live streaming to children’s classrooms across America from the International Space Station would be great. It was not. After an unfortunate breach in the system left all the monkeys (and one cat) on-board frozen solid and flying around, things got a bit hectic. And while we’re pretty sure no amount of space puns or jokes could distract from a frozen Russian woman flying outside the spacecraft, that doesn’t stop McGovern from trying We “Apollo-gize” for the horrors you’re about to see.…

If The Earth were shrunk down to the size of a tennis ball, how big would the universe be? Wren of the Corridor Crew is here to show you. Read more: https://twistedsifter.com/videos/largest-known-stars-compared-to-tennis-ball-sized-earth/

Government sclerosis is no match for the hot take industrial complex. Since President Trump ordered the Department of Defense to prepare for a sixth military branch in June—an order that has stalled, since it requires congressional approval—the debate over this proposed Space Force has become so clouded by partially-informed, mostly-partisan rhetoric, there’s barely enough light for an honest appraisal. The bare facts are these: The American military has operated in space for over half a century, and Trump’s Space Force is one of several proposals for how—not whether—to continue its…

Several attempts at drilling were made by a wavering hand either on Earth or in orbit, in what could be accident or sabotage An air leak on the International Space Station might have been sabotage, according to the head of Russias Roscosmos space agency, and an investigation is under way. Dmitry Rogozin said the caused from outside by a tiny meteorite, but later admitted that had been ruled out. Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) ISS Leak summary: First thought was MMOD strike. Then NASA released pics. Lots of people: “Hmmm,…

Credit Intentionally Withheld The day before, Stierwalt had traveled from Southern California to Pingtang Astronomy Town for a conference hosted by scientists from the world’s largest telescope. It was a new designation: China’s Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, or FAST, had been completed just a year before, in September 2016. Wandering, tipsy, around this shrine to the stars, the 40 or so other foreign astronomers had come to China to collaborate on the superlative-snatching instrument. VCG/Getty Images China spent $180 million to create the telescope, which officials have repeatedly said…

Early Saturday morning, the skies above Cape Canaveral will light up with the launch of the Parker Solar Probe. Its mission? To sweep through the sun’s infernal outer atmosphere, studying the gaseous fireball at the center of the solar system at closer range than any man-made object ever before. Despite being the nearest star to Earth, the sun’s extreme environment has stymied scientists for decades. Some of its quirks are still a mystery, like why the its atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its boiling plasma surface. Or how…

Listen, I get it. You want to go to Mars. I want to go to Mars. (Sort of.) And the plan—it’s good. A rocket with people. A base on the moon. Then more rockets and more people. Start making fuel on the surface, maybe depot it along the way. An outpost becomes a base becomes a domed city. And then: terraforming. Bring dead Mars back to life, build it a new atmosphere with whatever’s left in its soil—frozen carbon dioxide, most likely—to up the air pressure, rely on greenhouse warming…

Curiosity digs up carbon compounds that could be food for life in sediments that formed 3bn years ago Nasas veteranwhiffs of chlorine-containing organics in the planets rocks, but concerns over potential contamination and instrument glitches meant that the results did not convince everyone. The latest findings, separate paper published in Science, another Nasa-led team describes Curiositys latest measurements of the Martian atmosphere. Before the rover touched down in August 2012, missions to the red planet had already spotted methane in the atmosphere which spiked from time to time as plumes…

Mission to find source of methane detected in atmosphere may have an answer in months, researchers believe Scientists have begun an experiment aimed at solving one of astronomys most intriguing puzzles: the great Martian methane mystery. In the next few months they hope to determine whether tantalising whiffs of the gas that have been detected on the red planet in recent years are geological in origin or are produced by living organisms. On Earth, methane is produced mostly by microbes, although the gas can also be generated by relatively simple…